The Number of Refusals for Donor Organ Quality Does Not Impact Heart Transplant Outcomes in Children

Rizwan and colleagues retrospectively reviewed data from the United Network for Organ Sharing database for pediatric donor hearts and transplants from 2000 to 2015. The authors focused on two cohorts: recipients who accepted a heart with three or fewer prior refusals due to donor quality (RDQ), and recipient accepting hearts with more than three RDQs. Recipients who were adolescents, on extracorporeal support, or in need of a retransplant were more likely to accept a donor heart with a high number of RDQs. Despite this, the rates of posttransplant stroke, dialysis, acute rejection, and rejection within one year were not different between the two groups. Additionally, accepting a heart with more than three prior RDQs did not predict one-year or overall mortality (p = 0.427 and p = 0.626, respectively).